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Thursday, October 27, 2011

I decided to make some more pie pops, however, this time I tried using a pumpkin pie filling... and I put them on orange polka dot paper straws! I made them the same way I did before so you can visit my other post here to follow the step by step directions.

The only difference was that I used a pumpkin pie filling, and I made my filling a little bit thicker for the pie pops by not adding all of the evaporated milk that the recipe called for. I just used the recipe on the back of the canned pumpkin, however this is way too much filling for just pie pops! Unless you're planning on making hundreds of them. ;) I made about 12 pie pops and also used my filling to make mini pumpkin pies in a mini muffin tray and still had leftover filling. You could still fill a 9" pie crust really well after making 12 pie pops because you only use a very small amount of filling in each pie pop.

To make the mini pumpkin pies I cut circles from the pie crust just like I did for the pie pops, but placed them in the mini muffin trays using a pampered chef mini-tart shaper. Then filled each one with filling just below the top of the crusts. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

I have been wanting to make some french macarons for quite a while now, and today I finally got around to making some! I plan on making some for my sister's wedding and wanted to have a trial run before the big day. I think I will experiment more with some homemade fillings, but these that I made today were very simple and easy to make! I combined a couple recipes to create this one.

The main recipe I followed was by Martha Stewart here. I love the muted colors of her macarons, however I decided to make mine a bit more colorful!

Ingredients for Macarons:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

3/4 cup almond flour

2 large egg whites, room temperature

Pinch of cream of tartar

1/4 cup superfine sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 teaspoon strawberry or raspberry extract

Teal food coloring

Yellow food coloring

Pink and Burgundy food coloring (i added burgundy to help make a brighter and darker pink)

Ingredients for fillings:
(use about 1 teaspoon of filling for each macaron)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I came across this recipe on Pinterest via The Girl Who Ate Everything. This recipe is super easy to follow, I adjusted it slightly to make more of them. These little lasagnas would be great as an appetizer at a party or an easy dinner to prep at home to take to someone for a meal. You can find the recipe here to make 6 cupcakes or follow along below; I made 18 standard sized lasagna cupcakes.You could also alter the recipe to make your favorite kind of lasagna.

Ingredients:

16 oz jar of marinara sauce or 2 cups of homemade marinara sauce.

1 lb of ground beef or turkey

36 wonton wrappers (find in the produce section of the grocery store, in the refrigerated section)

4. Start layering your lasagna cupcakes. First place a wonton wrapper into the bottom of each muffin tin. Sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese, Ricotta cheese, and mozzarella cheese on top. Then top with some meat and marinara sauce. You can add the ingredients to your taste. I added about 1-2 teaspoons of the cheeses and about 1-2 tablespoons of the meat and sauce for each layer.

5. Repeat step 4 and once you end with the marinara sauce you will add more Parmesan and mozzarella cheese on top of each cupcake.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.

7. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the muffin tins. Run a knife along the edges to loosen.

Love these Wine Bottle Labels by Kelsey from Everyday is a Celebration. She is giving you the printable for FREE here on her blog! She printed these on Kraft paper and attached them with mod podge. You can find all the details in Kelsey's post. These would be great to use on empty wine bottles with candle sticks in them as a centerpiece on a dining table! Or stick one onto a bottle of wine as a Halloween Hostess gift for a party your attending!

I LOVE all of these creative bath time activities for kids. They are all inexpensive to do. I put Hudson is the tub to play when I need to clean the bathroom, get ready, put away laundry, ect. So I will be trying out these fun new ideas to keep him entertained!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

"The idea of bittersweet is changing the way I live, unraveling and re-weaving the way I understand life. Bittersweet is the idea that in all things there is both something broken and something beautiful, that there is a sliver of lightness on even the darkest of nights, a shadow of hope in every heartbreak, and that rejoicing is no less rich when it contains a splinter of sadness. Bittersweet is the practice of believing that we really do need both the bitter and the sweet, and that a life of nothing but sweetness rots both your teeth and your soul. Bitter is what makes us strong, what forces us to push through, what helps us earn the lines on our faces and the calluses on our hands. Sweet is nice enough, but bittersweet is beautiful, nuanced, full of depth and complexity. Bittersweet is courageous, gutsy, earthy."

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

When I came across this glow-in-the-dark slime recipe at about.com I knew I had to make some for Hudson! It is the perfect Halloween craft for boys! It would also be great for kids Halloween party favors or gifts to give to your little one's friends. I made some free "Slime" labels to print and use on jars or bags of slime. You can find the recipe below along with the free labels!

Ingredients:

1 - 4oz bottle of clear or blue gel Elmer's glue

1 cup of warm water

2-3 tablespoons of glow-in-the-dark paint

Green Neon Food Coloring

2 teaspoons of Borax

1/3 cup of warm water

I altered the recipe a bit from the original recipe at about.com, but it came out great! First mix together the Elmer's glue and the 1 cup of warm water. Stir in the paint and food coloring. In a separate small bowl mix together the 1/3 cup warm water and 2 teaspoons of borax. Stir until the borax is dissolved. Now add about 2 tablespoons of the borax solution to the glue solution. You WILL NOT use all of the borax solution. Stir continuously while adding the solution. The more borax solution you add the stiffer the slime will be. So if you want the slim to be more runny, then add less borax solution. You can add more green food coloring while stirring these solutions together to get your desired color of slime! It should start sticking together and you've got green glow-in-the-dark slime!

This recipe can make 2 small half jar fulls of slime or your could package a smaller amount of slime into favor baggies. You can find the Slime labels here and tied them on with black bakers twine, which I sell in my shop here.

TIPS: You can find glow-in-dark-paint at craft stores in the paint isles, and borax can be found at most grocery stores along side the laundry detergents. Also make sure to check the paint that you buy to see that it is safe to use for the project. This slime would not be suitable for small children who might put some in their mouth.